The present invention relates to automatic appliances for washing articles, and more particularly, to an autonomous and portable automatic appliance for treating articles such as nursing bottles and their accessories, by washing, rinsing, and sterilizing.
Ever since infants are fed by nursing bottles, there is a need to wash these bottles and their accessories. Nursing bottles, also related to as baby feeding bottles, infant bottles and the like, are all referred to as bottles. The same term applies to both shorter and longer bottles. Accessories are defined as nursing nipples, or nipples, and nipple connectors, or connectors, for retaining the nipples attached to the nursing bottles. Nursing bottles are also called feeding bottles and baby bottles. The term article refers to a nursing bottle and its accessories.
In view of the need, many solutions have been proposed. Cleaning equipment of the kind divulged in U.S. Pat. No. 2,340,215 by Fowler, and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,419,348 by Kuta, are not considered relevant since they are intended for the cleaning of bottles in industry. Solutions which do not provide automatic cleaning are disregarded, such as a manual brush disclosed by Batch, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,709,003, and a rigid spout penetrating inside the bottle, as taught by Spencer in U.S. Pat. No. 5,855,219.
Brushes and other disposable are not desirable, as they wear out and have to be replaced. Therefore, the following inventions are not believed to satisfy the need: U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,036 by Hedrick et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,903,944, to Burell, U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,692 by Zhadanov et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,060 by Quimpo, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,787,910 by Oda et al.
The necessity to couple a bottle cleaner to the water mains, thus to a water pipe, and the need to discharge spent water to a drain, is an unwanted limitation. Therefore, the invention of Anderson, for a portable cleaning apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,534 and that of Meilleur, for a portable single cup washer disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,522,410, do not present a solution to the quest.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,544,529, Hoeck teaches a bottle sterilizer, but not more than that.
What is required is an appliance of compact dimensions, performing automatically as an autonomous device. Autonomous refers to the independence from an external fixed water source such as a water supply in the form of a water pipe, water faucet and the like, all considered as water mains. Furthermore, the appliance should treat at least one single load of articles, such as a nursing bottle and accessories, and provide rinsing, washing, and sterilization cycles. Preferably, the appliance should be portable, independent from connection to a drain for the purging of spent water, and use but limited quantities of water, to permit treatment of more than one single load of articles.